Apprenticeships: the new be all and end all?
Tom is an apprentice. Well, he was. He resigned last month. Less than a month into his second year of apprenticeship.
Did you know that 40% of apprentices don’t get to the end?
There’s plenty of talk of apprenticeships these days, and what a good idea they are, the government wants to create 3 million new ones, but the rate of failure (to get the bit of paper) is rarely mentioned, although Lady Shed’s writer Maddie Grigg did touch on that last month. And I agree with her, university is not the be all and end all.
Are apprenticeships the new be all and end all?
Tom started work at a small family firm aged 16 working every Saturday morning and holidays, to ensure an apprenticeship there the following year. He loved it. He learnt loads, he was treated like a grown up and felt respected, unlike at school; he did masses of overtime during the holiday, which made him feel even more like a grown up.
Aged 16 Tom was paid minimum wage, £3.79 per hour. The boss commented that in his company, the best in Dorset, apprentices were not paid the stupid rate that government had come up with, £2.63. Tom was over the moon. He’d found a great apprenticeship, and he was going to be paid a fairly decent wage.
What’s not to like?
September came along, with it the apprenticeship started. After almost a year of Saturdays and holidays he still knew little about the trade he was learning, obviously, but he knew more than the next kid that had just started fresh from GCSE and a Summer holiday. Yet when the first apprentice pay cheque arrived, a shock came with it. £2.63 per hour. “That’s not me, that’s what I have to pay you”, went the boss’ new tune. “Costs me money when you’re at college, you’re not earning me anything then”.
The company did get £1,500 from government to take an apprentice on.
Tom understood that as the lowest rank on the ladder he was the tea maker, the floor sweeper and the runner around. But in exchange, he expected to learn. Proper learning when there is a quiet moment, watching how to do something new when it’s not a mad rush, being taught the next thing when a colleague can spare the time. Isn’t that what an apprenticeship is about? When Tom brought it up, the boss laughed. “You’re not going to learn the trade in two years, young lad, it takes at least five years”.
Which is fair enough, but besides the point.
There is plenty of learning to be done in two years.
And it is the employer’s job to provide it. Learning should be structured with the help of college. By the time Tom’s college realised that structure was missing, despite Tom raising his concerns over lack of learning several times over the first year, and admitted structure was a problem with many smaller employers, it was too late for Tom.
He’d been pushed beyond the lack of learning.
Tom worked every other Saturday morning but was never given a half day in the week in lieu, as is required by law for under 18’s. 10 months in, he was made to work over the allowed 40 hour week for an under 18 because the bookkeeper had paid him to work every Saturday since the beginning of the apprenticeship.
Tom was given no choice. Work later every week day for the next year.
Like it or lump it.
Acas was of little help, it is indeed the law that an under 18 should be given 2 days off a week, and work no more than 40 hours, but the law is only a guideline, the only solution, not necessarily recommended, is to take the employer to court if you have a problem with the way you are treated.
Great way to start your career, right?
College, apart from one tutor, was of little help. The day at college is a day off, as Tom’s mates commented many a time. When asked for advice, college had no idea about the law. Had he, and his parents, been informed about the rules of apprenticeship or under 18 employment, the apprenticeship may well have gone a different way. College admitted there was not enough structure provided for small employers and are working on improving this issue.
And government’s advice on their apprenticeship website? “Talk to HR”.
All companies have an HR department, right?
So. Apprenticeships? Yes.
But for goodness sake, not all companies are corporate entities with ladders to climb and HR departments to turn to like the ‘trailblazers’ the government consults to ‘design’ these apprenticeships. Give small employers and apprentices proper guidelines and structure, provide them both with decent support, relevant information on employment, and ensure that companies deliver decent and relevant learning; that companies give fairly when they take on an employee at such a low wage. Otherwise, we’ll still have great apprenticeships numbers (when they start), better unemployment figures in the process, but too little learnt at the end for too many kids that were, more often than not, already failed by the education system because they did not fit into the rigid academic mould of exams.
And Tom? A local employer who’d seen him work put a word in when he found out Tom had resigned. Three companies were interested. Tom was working within a week, being paid a decent hourly rate, learning loads again.
Thing is, Tom is 18 now. Out of the education woods.
Welcome to the world of grown ups Tom.
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